Cryptogram

ByJoanne Mazna GaringerFebruary 26, 1981

Behind breathless speech river without end (and what do these silences portend?) someone is hiding.m Between the shout and echo or voices brittle over the wire (must these silences conspire?) someone is imploring.m While the performance drowns in cymbals of applause after laughter's sounding brass we are stunned by certain silences -- intervals in the score -- (shadows behind the door) we've been listeners to the pause and the instant before rainm and the eye of the hurricanem marking the deletions (our questions unasked) the hesitancy behind the mask. What were they saying? What did it mean? Why do these silences sink deeper than speech this see thing notm said crack like lightning in our heads?